86 LECTURE III. 



doabt, sharpens the wits as well as the teeth, and according 

 to Horace, growing fat is a mark of incipient stupidity. 



Formerly, the opinion prevailed that man possessed a brain 

 absolutely heavier than that of any other animal. This is true 

 as regards most animals ; but intelligent colossals — such as 

 the elephant, and we may also add, the whale — soon proved 

 the axiom to be unfounded. If, it was then said, it be not the 

 absolute, it is the relative, weight. The weight of man's body 

 compared with that of his brain is, on the average, as 36 to 1 ; 

 whilst in the most intelUgent animals it is rarely above 100 to 1. 

 Whilst in the former case it was the giants, it was now the 

 dwarfs of creation which upset the axiom. The host of small 

 song birds vary as regards this proportion, within limits 

 which far exceed the normal proportion in the human race. 

 The small American monkeys, too, exhibit a proportionally 

 heavier brain than that of the lord of creation. If, then, the 

 weight of the brain is to be compared with any other numerical 

 factor in the body, it can only be a measure of length, which, 

 although subject to variation, is so in a much less degree, and 

 it might, perhaps, be best to adopt the length of the vertebral 

 column as the standard. On adopting the whole length of the 

 body, that of the legs is included, and it is just the length of 

 the legs which exhibits the greatest variations. The trunk of 

 man varies much less, and this offers a much more accurate 

 standard. Moreover, measurements of the whole length of 

 the human body can never be compared with those of mam- 

 mals, none of them possessing an erect stature, but their pos- 

 terior limbs forming invariably a greater or lesser angle with 

 the axis of the vertebral column. 



We possess at present only the weights of the brains of the 

 tribes of central Europe, — Germans, French, and English, — 

 in any considerable numbers, and these are so arranged that 

 they require further critical sifting. The table furnished by 

 Wagner is a crude, undigested mass ; and those who would 

 draw inferences from it must subject it to a close sifting, as 

 sex, age, and diseases are curiously intermixed. This much 

 may, however, be inferred from it, that although there is no 

 definite mathematical proportion, there is an approximative 

 relation between the weight of the brain and the development 



